


A Crisis of Alternatives

by brinshannara



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover Event (CW DC TV Universe)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:42:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22827358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brinshannara/pseuds/brinshannara
Summary: In this story, Alex Danvers, and not Ryan Choi, was the Paragon of Humanity during Crisis on Infinite Earths. As such, she's the Alex we've known and loved on Earth-38, with all of those memories intact. This is the reality Alex comes back to when she, and the other Paragons, return to what is now Earth Prime. Spoilers for the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, of course.
Relationships: Alex Danvers & Kara Danvers, Alex Danvers/Maggie Sawyer
Comments: 52
Kudos: 227





	A Crisis of Alternatives

**Author's Note:**

> When we first heard about Crisis on Infinite Earths, I thought it was the perfect story with which to bring back Maggie. Obviously, that didn't happen. So I decided to try my hand at what I thought should have happened. And it starts with keeping Alex from Earth-38 alive. On the show, technically speaking, that Alex is dead and replaced by Alex Prime. This did not sit well with me. So step aside, canon. It's my turn.

She was exhausted, bone-weary, completely drained. It had been a long… day? Week? Year? She settled on time. It had been a long time, and Alex didn't quite know when she'd last been home.

It wasn't the home she knew, not really. Her Earth had been destroyed in the Crisis and the Earth that she was now on was some kind of amalgamation of the different Earths that had existed, as were most of its inhabitants.

As the Paragon of Humanity, Alex had kept all of her memories, as had the other Paragons. It meant that she and those few others were all that remained of their Earths. She was grateful that at least Kara and J'onn had been with her.

She was already dreading explaining things to Kelly, including explaining that she needed a new phone, as her own wasn't compatible with the technology on this Earth. It would be a long story, so she'd called her from the DEO and left a message saying she would go home and she'd see her tomorrow. She'd hoped to at least talk to her, even have a short conversation, but it was the middle of a workday, so Kelly was probably with a client. It was fine; she just wanted to get some sleep, even if it was only just before noon.

Alex trudged up the stairs of her apartment building to her floor, ready to fall into bed and rest. She was glad she'd checked her driver's license to make sure she still lived where she thought she did, pleased to discover she still lived in her apartment. She'd had enough surprises for the day, not the least of which was the fact that the DEO was now a subsidiary of LuthorCorp. That meant that Lex Luthor, that poisonous snake, was her boss.

So it was with great relief that she slid the key into the lock and opened the door to her apartment. And then she stopped dead in her tracks.

Standing in the kitchen, a smile on her face, was Maggie.

"Danvers, what are you doing home so early?"

She just stared, mouth agape.

"Alex? Are you okay?" She walked over to her, looking concerned.

She blinked, unable to process things. Maggie was  _ there _ . She looked towards the counter where Maggie was resting her hands, and saw a bonsai tree that she'd been trimming. She seemed to live there. Alex looked back at her. God, she was beautiful, radiant. Alex's heart ached, deep in a spot where she hadn't hurt in a long while. It caught her completely off-guard, and all she wanted to do was wrap her arms around the woman standing in front of her. But she couldn't. There was Kelly, after all. And no matter what else the universe had changed, she was sure that they would still butt heads over children. So she pushed the pang aside and forced a smile. "I'm, uh, I'm fine," she said. "Just, uh, forgot something."

Maggie raised an eyebrow. "What did you forget?"

Alex hoped that in this universe, she still kept her Maaldorian gun in the same spot in her nightstand. She hoped she even  _ had _ a Maaldorian gun. She rushed towards the bed and pulled open the drawer, thankful to find it sitting there. "Forgot to bring this in," she said. "Brainy wants to look at it to see if he can get it to power up again." She smiled and tucked the gun at the small of her back, under her leather jacket.

"If he can get it working, I want to use it more often," she grinned.

Alex smiled back. "Sure." She cleared her throat. "So what are you up to today?"

Maggie looked at her askance. "You asked me that this morning."

"Did I?" Alex asked, starting to wonder about the very nature of existence. She hadn't asked Maggie anything that morning. So was Maggie remembering a false, implanted memory? Or was she remembering another Alex?

"Yeah." Maggie put her hands on her hips and Alex saw the glint of her ring for the first time.

They were engaged. Maybe already married.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Tired," she said, truthfully. "Anyway, I should go, bring this back to Brainy and all."

"Okay. See you for dinner?"

"Uh, yeah, uh, probably," she said, her voice quavering a bit.

Maggie looked at her and tilted her head to the side. "You're acting weird, Alex."

She bit her lip and looked at who she thought of as her ex, regardless of what apparent relationship they had now, in this universe. She could always tell when Alex was lying. It didn't help that Alex's ability to lie to those she cared about had atrophied since telling Kara and her mother that she was DEO, all those years ago. "Okay, yes, something is going on. I promise to explain it to you later."

She could tell Maggie was thinking it over, wondering if she should push Alex to tell her or if she could just trust her judgment.

"As long as you're okay, sure. You can tell me about it later."

Alex raised an eyebrow, having expected a more protracted discussion. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." She smiled. "I trust you, Danvers."

She forced another smile, this time pushing aside the guilt that welled up inside of her. "Thanks. I'll see you later."

And with that, Alex left her apartment, and went straight to Kara's.

***

"So she  _ lives _ there?" Kara asked, eyes wide.

"Looks like it," Alex said, curled up on Kara's couch, hugging a pillow and holding a beer. "She was just there like she was  _ supposed  _ to be there, in the middle of the day. Her bonsai trees were there, too. Books. Photos.  _ Stuff _ . Her stuff was there."

"Oh, boy."

"Kara, what do I do?"

"Well, you have to tell her," Kara replied.

"What, like, ‘hey, Mags, you know how we're together? Well, the multiverse collapsed, and Oliver recreated the universe, and now there's only one Earth. But, uh, fun fact, on my Earth, we broke up two years ago.'? I can't say that." She sipped at her beer. "And what about Kelly?"

Her sister raised her eyebrows. "You haven't spoken to her?"

She shook her head. "I called her from the DEO before but left a voicemail." She exhaled. "Kara, it's clear that, in this universe, I'm with Maggie." She shook her head. "Maggie said that, earlier this morning, I had asked her what she was up to today."

"She saw you this morning?"

"I don't know! She  _ thinks  _ she did!"

Kara thought about it. "But was that just some kind of memory that was put there, the way everyone thinks Barry and Kate and I have always existed on the same Earth?"

"Right? I thought that. The universe didn't  _ technically _ exist this morning, did it?"

She exhaled. "I guess not…?" She shook her head. "This is all very, very weird."

"So maybe it's an implanted memory. Or maybe I've replaced the Alex of this Earth."

Kara looked up at her. "Or… maybe you  _ haven't _ replaced the Alex of this Earth."

She furrowed her brow and shook her head. "No way, there won‘t be two of us. Just like there's not two of you or J'onn or Barry or any of us."

"Are you sure?"

"No…" She reached for her phone and stopped. "I have  _ got _ to get a new phone. Did you get one that works with this universe yet?"

She nodded. "Got it this morning."

Alex held out her hand, and Kara handed it to her. "Gonna call the DEO and make sure I'm… not there."

A quick call to J'onn, who was still at the DEO, restoring certain people's memories, confirmed that they hadn't seen Alex since she'd left the DEO that morning.

"Is everything all right, Alex?" he'd asked.

"I'll tell you about it later," she'd promised.

Handing the phone back to Kara, she sighed in relief. "Well, that answers that question."

"So regardless of  _ how  _ Maggie has that memory, you're the Alex in it, somehow," Kara nodded.

Something hovered around the edge of Alex's mind. She was still beyond exhausted, and she knew she was missing something about all of this. And then it hit her.

Eyes wide, she looked at her sister. "Kara, if I'm with Maggie in this universe… what does that mean for me and Kelly?"

"Oh Rao," Kara muttered. "We should probably look her up." Within a blink of an eye, she'd used her super speed and brought her laptop to the couch, the search engine results for "Kelly Olsen" already populated. "We can get J'onn to recover her memories and stuff."

"Well, she's still in National City, and still working at Obsidian North," Alex said. "I called the Obsidian North number and dialed her extension and heard her voice on the outgoing message."

Kara nodded, and they both scanned through the results, looking for some writeup or bio on her. Eventually, they found one from the American Psychological Association. Alex took a breath and clicked, skimming the text.

"Kelly Olsen and her wife live in National City, California," she read the last line aloud.

"Alex…" Kara sighed. "I'm so sorry."

She shut the laptop and put it on the coffee table, feeling numb. "No, it's, uh… it's good," she said, shakily. "She's, uh, you know, married. Happy."

"You don't know that she's happy. Maybe we should get J'onn to— "

"No," Alex said, quickly, "we're not gonna mess with her mind." She swallowed. "If I can't be with her, at least she's okay and happy."

"Alex, come on, be reasonable."

"I  _ am _ being reasonable," she argued. "On this Earth, Kelly is married. She's  _ probably _ married to the woman she was engaged to on our Earth, who died before they could get married." She stood up. "I am  _ not  _ going to ruin her chance at happiness and I'm  _ not  _ going to ask J'onn to do anything that would risk that happiness, do you understand me?"

Kara sighed. "And what about you and your happiness?"

She grabbed her beer off the coffee table and took a drink before starting to pace. "I don't know, Kara. The woman I loved more than anything is sitting in my apartment like we never broke up and I've just lost my girlfriend." She shook her head. "My happiness is... complicated."

"Do you think it could work with Maggie?"

She snorted. "You think any Maggie on any Earth wants kids?"

"Well, maybe?"

"Even if she does, how's she going to take it to know that she's my second choice because my girlfriend doesn't even know who I am in this universe? How am I going to explain any of this to her? She'll have me committed."

"So have J'onn show her."

She sighed. "I don't want him messing with anyone's memories, not if it's not absolutely necessary."

"Well, if it keeps you from being committed, I'd say that's necessary."

Alex just looked at her sister. "This isn't helping."

"Sorry, sorry," Kara said. "Okay, look, you have to talk to her. That's the only option. And you can stay here for as long as you want, so don't think you're homeless just because Maggie's living at your place."

"Thanks," she said, finishing her beer. "I'll go get a new phone and I'll text you from the new number. Call me in a couple hours if you haven't heard from me, all right?"

She nodded. "Good luck."

***

Alex took a deep breath outside of her own apartment, put the key in the lock and pushed the door open.

"Hey," Maggie said from the couch, looking comfortable with a cozy blanket. "Everything okay?" She turned and hit the power button on the remote, turning off the television.

Alex smiled and shut the door, locking it behind her and dropping her keys on the kitchen counter. "Yeah, uh… we, uh, we should talk about stuff."

She sat up, her blanket falling into her lap. "This sounds serious. This is about why you were acting weird this morning, right?"

Alex blew out a breath and nodded, sitting down on the couch next to her. "Do you… did we… Do you know what the multiverse is?" On Earth-38, she and Maggie had discussed the existence of the multiverse frequently. It would be interesting to know if this Maggie knew anything of that, if what Alex remembered was still coherent compared to Maggie's memories.

She frowned. "Isn't that the theory where multiple Earths all occupy the same space but vibrate at different frequencies?"

She nodded. "Right."

"So is that what's going on? Did you and the DEO somehow confirm the multiverse?"

She sighed. It wasn't as though she hadn't known it before, but this wasn't her Maggie. She looked like her, she sounded like her, she even  _ smelled  _ like her, but it wasn't her Maggie. Maybe it would be easier to tell her the truth knowing that. "We, uh, we confirmed the multiverse five years ago, when Barry found himself on our Earth."

Maggie tilted her head. "Barry Allen? The Flash?"

Alex nodded.

"But… he's always been on this Earth."

She exhaled. "No, he hasn't. He was on Earth-1 and you and me and Kara and everyone, we were on Earth-38."

Maggie frowned. "Why does Team Flash get Earth-1?"

Despite everything, Alex laughed. "I've asked myself that dozens of times over the years."

Maggie was thinking. "So if Barry hasn't always been here, why do I remember him here?" She turned to Alex. "And why do you seem to know differently?"

As always, Alex marvelled at Maggie's quick intellect. "Because I'm from Earth-38 and you… you're from this Earth."

She rubbed her index finger across her chin, thinking. "Something happened to the multiverse," she concluded, looking over at Alex and letting her hand drop into her lap. "And you… aren't my Alex, are you?" She tightened her lips, bracing herself for the news.

Alex nodded. "There are only four survivors from Earth-38 and three from Earth-1."

"And I'm not one of them, but you are? Kara, too, I guess?"

"And J'onn. Uh, Lex Luthor, too." She winced, knowing how it would sound, particularly as he seemed to be a hero on this Earth.

"Ugh, I hate that guy."

Alex raised her eyebrows. "You do?"

"He's dirty, I know he is, I just have no way of proving it," she grumbled.

"Well, you're right. On Earth-38, he was one of the biggest villains the world had ever seen."

"No kidding?"

She nodded.

"Well, that makes sense." She considered and then took a breath. "So if you're Alex from Earth-38, where's my Alex? The Alex I remember? My wife?"

Her shoulders slumped. "I think I'm  _ supposed  _ to be her," she confessed, "but…"

"But you're not. You have different memories than I do."

She nodded.

"But you know me?"

Another nod.

"How do we know one another? On your Earth?"

She flinched and tried to deflect the conversation. "My Earth doesn't exist anymore. This is the only one that matters."

"Look, if you're not  _ my  _ Danvers, if  _ my _ Alex is gone, then I need to know who you are. Who we were to one another, for you," Maggie argued, just a wisp of her temper flaring.

She sighed. Maggie deserved to know. "We, uh… we were engaged."

"And then the Earths were destroyed? So you lost your Maggie?"

Alex was tempted to lie. It would be so easy to gloss over Kelly and protect Maggie's feelings. Finally, she shook her head. "Uh, I… I was dating James' sister, Kelly, when we lost Earth-38."

"Oh."

"And, uh, it looks like, on this Earth, she's married to the woman she'd been engaged to on my Earth. Her fiancée who had died before they got married." She knitted her fingers together so they wouldn't shake.

Maggie exhaled. "I'm sorry, Alex. I sort of understand where you're coming from."

She just nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

"So what happened to the other worlds?" Maggie asked.

Despite the grim subject, Alex was glad to change the course of the conversation. It was, somehow, much easier to talk about hundreds of billions of people getting wiped out than it was to talk about her and Maggie or her and Kelly. "Gone," she said. "An antimatter wave destroyed all 53 Earths."

Maggie looked over at her. " _ All _ Earths? So how is this Earth here? Shouldn't we all be dead?"

"You know Oliver? Oliver Queen?"

"The Green Arrow, yeah."

"Long story short, he kind of, uh… rebooted the universe? With the help of the Paragons."

"What are the Paragons?"

Alex stood and paced in front of the fireplace. "The champions from different Earths." She started ticking them off on various fingers. "We had Kara as the Paragon of Hope, J'onn as the Paragon of Honour, Barry as the Paragon of Love, Kate as the Paragon of Courage, Sara as the Paragon of Destiny. Oh, and Lex Luthor rewrote the Book of Destiny and made  _ himself _ the Paragon of Truth, instead of another version of Clark… and I was the Paragon of Humanity."

Maggie looked up at her. "Really?"

"I don't even understand it myself, I don't know how they picked me to be the Paragon of Humanity," she muttered.

"No, I meant really, Lex made himself a Paragon?" She smiled. "Whether you're my Alex or not, I totally see how you'd be the Paragon of Humanity."

She flushed. "Oh." She cleared her throat. "Thanks."

"So, Oliver and you and the Paragons rebooted the universe?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "It was very weird," she said.

"So where are we right now?" Maggie asked.

"Earth." She shrugged. "Earth Prime, I think we're calling it," she said.

"And this is a new development?"

Alex furrowed her brow. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, when did all of this happen? Because I remember waking up with  _ an  _ Alex Danvers this morning and that was  _ clearly _ not you."

"Yeah, uh, I guess I don't know how long it took for things to form and stuff, but it was this morning that the Paragons got back."

Maggie chewed her lip for a moment. "So if that wasn't you this morning, who was it? Who's the Alex in my memories? Is there even such a person?"

"I don't know, Maggie. Like I said, I think I'm  _ supposed  _ to be her, but the last couple of years have been very different for me."

Maggie pulled her legs up, crossing them in front of her as she turned to face Alex. "Tell me."

She blew out a breath and shook her head. "It's hard, Maggie."

"Let's start small. How did we meet?"

She sighed. "We met at the airport, after an attempt on President Marsdin's life."

Maggie smiled. "My jurisdiction ends where you say it does."

Alex returned the smile, remembering the interaction. "So that happened for you, too?"

"Looks like," she said. "And you were… you weren't out yet, right? Not even to yourself?"

"Right. I did not understand why you were stuck in my head, why I wanted to spend all of my time with you."

"And then I told you that you'd be surprised how many gay women told me they're not gay," she said, smiling enough for her dimples to show.

Alex chuckled. "You really messed with my head that day, you know."

"Complaining?"

She shook her head.

"And then I turned you down after you kissed me."

"Because I was ‘fresh off the boat'," Alex muttered.

She nodded. "But… life is too short, right?"

"And we should kiss the girls we wanna kiss," Alex finished.

"Well, it appears everything through to our getting together is the same for both of us." She looked at Alex, her eyes softening.

"Apart from the multiverse thing, yeah, it seems like it," she acknowledged, avoiding Maggie's eyes.

"What happened to us, Alex?" she asked, quietly. "What was the difference between your world and mine?"

She inhaled. "You, uh… You didn't want kids, and I did."

Maggie blinked at her. "We broke up because I didn't want kids?"

Alex nodded and looked down at her hands, fidgeting. "You, uh…" She cleared her throat. "You said you'd never seen yourself as a mom. And that, uh… I was enough."

"And so…?"

"So you made me end it," Alex said, getting a little angry, being forced to relive one of the most painful moments of her life. She stood and walked to the mantle, gazing at the photos of them, photos she both did and didn't recognize. "You made me say the words." She wiped the tears from her eyes with the cuff of her sleeve. She'd had enough. Going over it again was torturous. "So that was it. I said we couldn't be together." She forced her feelings deep down inside and turned around, face stoic. "I'm gonna stay at Kara's. I'll, uh, come back tomorrow while you're at work and pick up a few things."

"Alex, please, don't go," she said, gently. "We should talk."

"I can't do this right now, I'm sorry," she said. With that, she turned and left, holding back the tears until she was out of the building.

***

She spent the evening with Kara, who let her rage and cry and drink and made Alex call in sick for the next day. Not only would she not be in any shape to work the next day, but she had to go back to her apartment. She‘d need to pick up some stuff if she planned to spend a long while at Kara's.

As Kara slept soundly in her bed, Alex tossed and turned on the couch. She dozed for a couple of hours but was nowhere near rested when she awoke the next morning; memories of Kelly and Maggie haunted her all night long.

Upon awakening, she saw that Kara had left her a doughnut and a still-hot coffee before she'd headed off to Catco.

She took a quick shower and stole some of Kara's clothes, after which she caved and ate the doughnut, her thoughts whirling. Things were over with Kelly and she wasn‘t as upset as she'd thought she'd be. Kelly had been nice and kind and smart, but the relationship had differed completely from her relationship with Maggie. Sure, they'd clicked, but the sparks between them wasn't anything like the roaring fire she'd had with Maggie.

That Kelly was probably happily married made it easier to accept the loss, she considered.

What seemed to hurt more was the fact that she was supposed to be Maggie's  _ wife _ . How were things going to be different this time around? Why would the universe do this to her? Take away her girlfriend and make her end things with Maggie all over again? It was like some giant cosmic joke.

She finished the doughnut and grabbed the coffee. It was time to go get her things.

Alex arrived at the apartment and stopped herself from just opening the door. In case Maggie was there, she knocked. When it was clear there was no one home, she let herself in.

The apartment smelled like Maggie, and she allowed herself to take a deep breath. It was a mistake, memories cascading over her, all from her scent. She looked around the apartment. Maggie's belongings peeked out from various spots all over the apartment; her bonsai trees, her knick-knacks and trinkets, her photos. This Maggie had never moved out once she'd moved in.

"I bet your Alex didn't have this need to be a mom," Alex said aloud with a sigh. She walked up to the counter to put her keys down and noticed a handwritten note.

With some trepidation, she picked it up.

_ Alex, _

_ I know things are different for you, that you've spent the last while with another woman and that you're not technically my Alex. _

_ I know you'll need time to mourn the end of your relationship, and I'll give you all the time you need. Because I need to accept that my Alex, if there was ever such a person, isn't here, too. _

_ What I'd like, though, is for us to be friends, if that's something you think you could do. I know I'd appreciate a game of pool now and again. Maybe some pizza? _

_ Not sure if you have my number. It's (619) 903-5768. Call or text anytime. _

_ Maggie _

She sighed again. She scribbled a thanks and left her number in return and added Maggie's to her new phone. Then she went for the closet and grabbed a suitcase. Time to pack.

***

It was a week before Maggie texted Alex. It was just a short one to say hi and that if she was tired of sleeping at Kara's, Maggie could get a hotel room for a few days. Alex thanked her and said she was fine for now and hoped she was okay, too.

It was another week before Alex texted Maggie to say hi and to let her know they were doing a game night and did she want to come? Maggie responded, but declined and said maybe another time.

Two weeks after that, Maggie texted again, asking if Alex wanted to play pool. She thought about it, but she declined. She didn't feel like being around Maggie. It would just open up that ache in her chest again. She'd even started looking around for places to live, because she couldn't take living with Kara much longer. She refused to even consider kicking Maggie out of what was obviously now her home. Not again.

Kara had complained, as expected. Alex loved her sister, she did, but her perkiness could  _ really  _ grate on one's nerves. It was particularly grating on someone who was going through the existential crisis that Alex found herself experiencing. She could accept that she and Kelly weren't together, that much was clear and was fine. What she couldn't accept, much less understand, was why the universe would put her in a relationship with Maggie again. It was just cruel. She felt as though she was in limbo; they weren‘t together, but they were still apparently married. She'd looked up their marriage registration. It was legal.

The following Friday evening, Alex was scrolling through her phone, looking for apartments to rent. She was sitting on the couch with Kara, as some movie she wasn't paying attention to was on. While Kara finished the last of the potstickers, of which Alex had only gotten one, she got a text.

_ Maggie. _

She took a breath and tapped on the message.

"Hey, I know things are weird, but I think we should talk. Can you come over tonight?"

"Shit," she muttered.

"What is it?"

"Maggie wants to talk tonight."

"About what?"

"Things." She shrugged.

"Are you going to go?"

She sighed. "I mean, I guess so. I've been putting it off forever. May as well just rip off the bandaid." 

She texted Maggie to say she'd be there in a half hour. It was time.

***

She arrived at the apartment and knocked on the door. A moment later, Maggie opened it, looking radiant as ever. "Hey," she said, smiling.

"Hi." Alex already felt as though someone had hit her in the stomach and found herself questioning what she was even doing there. Why was she torturing herself?

"You don't have to knock, you know," she said, as she pulled it open further to let Alex in. "It's your place, after all."

She walked in and shrugged. "More yours than mine, I think, at this point. Something we should probably talk about."

Maggie nodded. "Well, can I get you something? A beer?"

"A beer would be great," she said.

Maggie went to the fridge and pulled out a beer as Alex took off her leather jacket and draped it over the back of the armchair in the living area. She accepted the drink gratefully and followed Maggie over to the sofa.

"So how are you doing?" Maggie asked.

She sipped at her beer. "Fine."

Maggie raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, no, I'm not fine." She swigged at her beer again. "How are you?"

"Good, all things considered."

"Good," she said, staring down at her drink, fidgeting with the label.

Maggie took a breath. "We should talk about some stuff."

Without looking up, Alex nodded. "I think you're right. And I think you should keep the apartment. I've been looking around at other places to live."

"Oh."

"What?" She looked over at her. "Is that not part of what we're talking about?"

She sighed. "Maybe… maybe I should go first."

"Sure," Alex said, putting the beer down on the coffee table. She turned to face her.

"I, uh… I went to the doctor today."

"Is everything okay?" she asked, concerned.

"Everything's fine," she smiled. "More than fine, really. At least, I think so."

Alex frowned. "That didn't make much sense."

Maggie picked up a paper that had been lying face-down on the coffee table and handed it to Alex. "This might explain things."

Alex accepted it and scanned the text. She looked up at Maggie and back down, unable to comprehend it.

"Is this…?"

"It is," Maggie replied, softly.

Alex stared dumbly at the paper. It was the results of a blood test. The levels of hCG were over 95,000 mIU. The name on the paper was Margarita Sawyer. It had today's date on it. She turned and looked at Maggie. "So you're…"

"Pregnant," she confirmed, putting her right palm over her belly, splaying her fingers out. "Just about nine weeks, so I'm not showing and it's still very early, as the doctor keeps warning me."

"But you're pregnant." Alex gazed at the paper again and then looked over at Maggie's stomach.

"I am. This was my second appointment. The first was the day that you told me that Oliver and you guys had restarted the universe."

"Wait, you were pregnant then?"

She nodded. "That's the day when I discovered the in vitro had worked."

"And… you  _ want  _ to be pregnant? To be a mom?" She couldn‘t understand it.

"I do."

Alex's head was spinning.

"My Alex and I wanted to have a kid. And I don't know if it was you or her or what, but  _ some _ Alex worked with Brainy to use 30th century medical techniques to modify her egg."

"Modify her egg?" Alex asked, not following.

"To allow it to fertilize mine."

Alex dropped the paper. "You're saying you're carrying a child that's composed of our DNA? The two of us? I mean… you and your Alex?"

She nodded.

"And you want to have kids?" Alex still couldn‘t grasp the concept.

"I was sort of thinking maybe we could start with one, but yeah," she smiled.

"Pregnant." She blinked. "Uh… congratulations."

"Thank you," she smiled.

"And I'm so sorry that you're without your wife," she added.

"See, Danvers, that's the thing. I don't think I am."

"What do you mean?"

"I've been doing a lot of thinking over the last month or so. I mean… you might have had a very different last couple of years than I did. And I know, you don't remember things the way I do. I know you were with another woman on your Earth when the antimatter wave came through and I respect that you moved on."

She nodded, again, although she wasn't entirely sure she ever  _ had _ moved on from Maggie. Not completely.

"Despite all of that, you're still the woman I fell in love with," she said, gently. "You're still the badass Alex Danvers I agreed to marry."

Alex shook her head. "No, I'm not. I'm not anymore. What…" She took a breath. "What happened between us changed me."

"I see a strong, smart, loving woman who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to fight for it."

She scoffed. It was true, though. If nothing else, breaking up with Maggie had shown her that she had the strength to hold out for what she wanted. She didn't have to settle for anything less. She wouldn‘t.

"But don't you see?" Maggie asked, gently. "Danvers, the universe is giving you what you wanted."

Alex's heart lurched in her chest and tears spilled down her cheeks. A ready-made family was waiting for her. Was it really that easy? Could she just fall back in love with Maggie?

She took Alex's hand and placed it on her stomach. "Don't you think it's possible that this change is the universe's way of thanking you for your part in all of this?"

Alex felt the warmth of Maggie's skin through her shirt and just stared at her hand, imagining what a baby —  _ their  _ baby — would look like.

"Come on, Danvers, you're telling me  _ Oliver Queen _ rebooted the freaking universe. You don't think it's possible for something good to come of it? To reunite us? To give you what you've always wanted?"

She couldn't fathom it. Things like this didn't happen to her. She shook her head and pulled her hand back. "What about you? And what you deserve? What you want?"

"You may not be my Alex Danvers," she admitted, "and that's a little weird."

"See?"

"Let me finish," she smiled. "But I think we've determined that, multiverse aside, everything until this whole I didn't want to be a mom thing was identical, right?"

She nodded. "I think so."

"White Martian kept you from coming to the Barenaked Ladies concert with me?"

She nodded.

"You proposed to me after the Daxamite invasion?"

Another nod.

"You hate vegan ice cream?"

She smiled at that and nodded.

"So you're still the woman I fell in love with. And I'm still the woman you fell in love with."

"Maggie, I-- "

"Danvers, would you just let me say my thing?" she laughed.

She sighed and sat back. "I'm sorry, go on."

"I know you're mourning your relationship with James' sister. And, in some ways, I'll mourn my Alex. But I think, maybe, in time, we could help each other heal." She tilted her head. "Isn't that what you told me you were here for? On this couch? That you weren't here to judge me, but that you were here to help me heal?"

"Well, not exactly  _ this _ couch, because I'm pretty sure that couch was…" She stopped as Maggie gave her a look. "... obliterated, but close enough." She looked up at Maggie. "I did say that."

"So? Do you think we might find our way back to one another?"

She sighed and dropped her gaze to Maggie's stomach. "This isn't fair to you," she insisted. "You've lost your wife. And I'm not her."

"You keep saying that."

"Because it's true."

"But I think you're still, at your core, the Alex Danvers I knew. And we fell in love, once upon a time."

"I don't know why you keep going back to us having fallen in love," she argued.

"Ride or die, remember?" Maggie was smiling. "Alex, what I'm saying is that even if you're not  _ my  _ Alex, I still want to be with you. I still want us to raise Junior here together," she said, placing her hand on her stomach again.

"You don't even know me!" she maintained.

"Sometimes, Danvers, sometimes... you just  _ know _ ." And with that, she reached out and cupped Alex's face in her hands and kissed her softly.

As soon as their lips touched, Alex melted into the kiss, letting the emotions wash over her. It had been so  _ long _ . And then, she felt something else. Something different.

She opened her eyes and pulled back with a gasp.

"I'm sorry," Maggie said, apologizing, "I know, I shouldn't have— "

"No, that's not it," she said, holding out her hand and looking up at her. She swallowed, eyes wide. "Maggie… I think…" She trailed off, blinking rapidly. 

Maggie raised an eyebrow. "You think what?"

It was a slow trickle at first, barely noticeable, but then a flowing stream of memories and now a rushing river of them. She shut her eyes tightly, the palms of her hands flying to her temples. Her head felt as though it would explode.

"Alex?"

She shook her head and grimaced. And just as she thought she'd pass out, it stopped. Cautiously, she opened her eyes and lowered her hands, looking around.

"Alex, are you okay? What's going on?"

She smiled and stood up, going to the fireplace, looking at the mantle. "This is us in Midvale, for my mom's birthday last year," she said, pointing at a photo. "This is us at that little bistro in Paris with the amazing wine, on our honeymoon," she said, pointing to another. She pulled a small snow globe off the shelf. "You got me this in Switzerland on that ski trip, even though I told you it was way too expensive."

Maggie looked up at her, eyes filled with tears. "You remember  _ us _ ? My reality?"

Alex smiled brilliantly at her and set the globe back down. "I remember us discussing having kids, back that day when I was talking to Ruby. And we decided yeah, it would be something we'd want to do, a little ways down the road."

Maggie's tears fell down her cheeks, and she was smiling bigger than Alex had ever seen.

"And I remember working all those long hours in the lab, with Brainy, trying to fertilize an egg with another egg." She sat back down on the couch and reached out to rest her hand on Maggie's stomach. "And I remember telling you that we could only have a girl, since there's no Y chromosome, and you were fine with that and you wanted dibs on naming her."

"Because you want to name our dog— "

"Gertrude!" they both said at the same time, laughing.

Maggie gazed at her, in awe. "You really do remember?"

She inhaled deeply, searching her memories. She could remember both existences. She remembered breaking up with Maggie and she remembered not breaking up with Maggie.

She remembered dating Kelly, and she remembered lazy Sunday mornings in bed with Maggie.

She remembered Reign and Colonel Haley and she remembered being madly in love with Maggie and declaring that in front of friends and family.

She remembered saving the world as a Paragon and she remembered their plans to have a daughter.

"I remember," she said, smiling. "I remember  _ everything _ ." She patted Maggie's abdomen gently. "Hey, Jamie," she said, softly. "I can't wait to meet you."

"You  _ do  _ remember," Maggie whispered, still crying.

Alex pulled her close and kissed her softly. "And I remember that I love you. On every and any Earth." She held Maggie close and knew, deep in her soul, that  _ this  _ was the way things were supposed to be. She was finally home.


End file.
